The capabilities of wireless media communication systems are dictated to a large extent by the bandwidth available to deliver information between a browser and a server. Particularly in wide area wireless environments where bandwidth is limited, utilization of the radio network and user response times can be improved by reducing data volume over the wireless media network.
“Micro” Internet browsers such as those currently available on wireless telephones execute Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) to access web servers. To facilitate such communication requires that identification and capability information be communicated between the browser and web server. Typically, HTTP headers sent by the browser consist of lengthy strings of American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII) text. These headers rarely change because they disclose non-changing attributes of the device. Therefore, it is desirable to reduce data volume over the wireless media network by reducing the volume of HTTP headers required during communication sessions between the browser and web server.